The number of people in Spain aged over 65 has exceeded 10 million for the first time
For the first time, the Spanish population aged 65 and over has exceeded 10 million people, representing 20.7 per cent of the total. This demographic ageing is reflected in the rise in the average age of the population, which has risen from 33 in 1975 to 44.55 in 2025. The number of centenarians has also risen sharply in recent decades, from 3,021 in 1981 to 17,038 in 2025. These are some of the figures published in the 2026 edition of the report A Profile of Older People in Spain, produced by the CSIC’s Institute of Economics, Geography and Demography, which combines data on demographics, health, the economy, care and digitalisation. In 2025, 96.3 per cent of people aged between 65 and 74 used a mobile phone. As for loneliness, since 2006, around 30 per cent of women aged 65 and over have been living alone, a proportion that is almost double that recorded among men.
Nerea Suárez Pérez de Eulate - informe mayores
Nerea Suárez Pérez de Eulate
In my view, this report provides a useful snapshot of ageing in our society, backed by reliable statistical sources.
It illustrates the growth of the older population and the differences in their health and living conditions by bringing together data from different years and sources, which allows us to describe the situation but not to establish its causes.
As a specialist geriatric nurse, I would emphasise that living longer does not always mean living in good health, and that older people face very different realities.
These figures should help us to plan care from a humanised, person-centred perspective, which promotes independence and addresses economic, social and regional inequalities.
Pérez Díaz Julio et al.
- Report
